Spacing and task complexity in mathematics learning

This thesis has two goals, to consider the evidence for the spacing and testing effects in mathematics and to investigate the effect of task complexity on the spacing effect. Chapter 2 presents a meta-analysis that aimed to synthesize the available evidence for the spacing and testing effects in mathematics learning. I found evidence for a robust effect of spaced practice and that this effect is larger when material is learnt in isolation rather than when embedded in a course, however, there is not yet enough evidence to show a robust testing effect in mathematics material. The experimental chapters of this thesis aimed to investigate the relationship between spacing and task complexity in mathematics learning. As task complexity can vary depending on the individual’s prior learning and experiences, this poses a problem when attempting to prescribe an individual with a personalised spaced learning schedule. I aimed to reduce the effect of prior knowledge by creating artificial tasks where each part is known to participants (i.e., the action “divide by two” as a step in a procedure, or the evaluation “is it a multiple of five?” to categorise a number), however, how the parts are structured is manipulated. Chapter 3 presents two experiments where procedural complexity, number of steps in the procedure, was manipulated. I found a consistent main effect of spacing, however spacing did not interact with procedural complexity. Chapter 4 presents two experiments where element interactivity, the number of elements that the learner must hold in working memory at once, was manipulated. This was done by varying the structure of categories. Experiment three found no main effect of spacing, however, I suggest this was due to interference between the categories. Overall, I found no evidence that procedural complexity or element interactivity interacts with the spacing effect and suggest this may be due to competing underlying mechanisms of the spacing effect that enable the effect’s robustness across tasks.